I'll add my $0.02 as well... last April when my Aztec came due for its
annual ('69 D model) I considered the price of the tube and the labor
involved in pulling to tube to inspect it, and redoing the inspection
ever 500 hrs I decided to be done with it an just replace the tube.

Here's where the fun began...Tube arrives, the mechanic looks closely at
the instructions lays it out as per the instructions and first thing he
notices is if you lined up the bell cranks with the curf cut as
instructed, the flaps will not line up properly. turns out when Piper
built the plane they drilled the hole wrong or cut the curf wrong or
something. Ok, no problem, he rotated the bell crank a few degrees (the
hole needed to be moved about 1/16" of an inch) lines the ends up flush
and drills and reams out the hold.

goes to put the tube in the airplane and finds out that the new tube is
about 1/16" of an inch shorter than the original tube and won't fit in
the bearing blocks, and is now trash.

Second tube comes from the distributer in a FedEx tube, tube arrives
with a 2" hole punched through the bottom and no torque tube.

Third tube comes from the distributer, this time the torque tube is
still inside (barely) and is successfully installed.

In other words remember that these planes were really built one at a
time and the instructions are just a guide but not always definitive.

Jeff

Steven wrote:
My 2 cents. We complied with the AD by putting in the new torque tube.
drilled it at the mechanical facility at the FBO and reinstalled it.
Airplane flew wing down and yawed left and right depending on the amount of
flaps. Took it out and examined and reinstalled to no effect.
Obtained an second new torque tube and had a machine shop drill it out and
then installed.
Airplane is in a slip at cruise and yaws with flaps. factory and dealer of
no help.
So.........while practicing approach to landing stalls, the aircraft
suddenly fills with mist. The gear are down and locked. The mist appeared
when lowering flaps. You got it . The torque tube had impinged on the
aileron cable, placed it under tension, caused sideslip in the aircraft and
also caused the aileron cable to saw through the hard aluminum hydraulic
line leading to the flaps.
I do not know that there is a moral to the story. Flying airplanes is
expensive.
"zatatime" wrote in message
...

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 01:08:04 GMT, Kyler Laird
wrote:


zatatime writes:


Can anyone point me to a link for Piper Service Bulletin 1051B?

http://www.caa-rs.si/images/pripone/..._MSB_1051B.pdf
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory...A?OpenDocument
http://www.tdatacorp.com/03-09-13.HTM

I've got a paper copy around here somewhere. I complied with it
years ago.

--kyler


Thanks! I had the Tdata link and the AD itself. Now I've got a pdf
of the SB and I'm psyched! Thank you for posting this for me.

z